The Democratic representative of El Paso, Texas, Verónica Escobar, asked the federal Department of Justice to investigate the case of the murder of a migrant in Hudspeth County as a hate crime.
Mike Sheppard and his twin Mark are charged in the shooting reported Tuesday that left one immigrant dead and another wounded. The survivor is in stable condition in a hospital after being shot in the stomach.
The victims were drinking water near Farm-to-Market Road 1111, southeast of El Paso, when they were shot, notes a criminal complaint from a Texas Ranger officer.
The report filed by agent Juan Torrez indicates that the incident occurred around 7 pm, when the walkers stopped to drink water at a reserve in Fivemile Tank, south of Sierra Blanca and some 90 miles east of El Paso.
The El Paso Matters report indicates that the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the victims were in a group of 13 undocumented Mexicans, among whom there was also a minor.
As a vehicle approached them, the migrants tried to hide to avoid detection, the complaint states.
It was at that moment that the driver backed up and fired twice before leaving the scene.
In interviews with federal agents, the aliens testified They heard one of the men yell in Spanish, “Get out, sons of a bitch!”.
This Thursday, the brothers were booked into the El Paso County Detention Center. Both face charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Mike Sheppard was the guardian of the immigration detention center in West Texas.
In the 2018, a group that watches over the rights of these people, denounced that officers in that facility abused some detainees of African origin for a week .
Under Mike’s tutelage, immigrants were beaten, sexually abused, attacked with pepper spray, in addition to receiving racial slurs.
In view of the above, Escobar announced that if he does not receive a response from Justice, he will summon colleagues in the United States Congress to sign a letter and thus pressure the agency for a hate crime investigation.
“Only based on public reports and the history of one of the murderers, alleged murderers, this smells like a hate crime to me”, he considered this Friday a legislator at a press conference.